Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-03

promise: "Ali are yours. But nave 10
tell you that man who estimates his life
on earth by mere worldly qualifications is
most unwise man. Our life is not to be
game of chess. 1t is not a dance in
lighted hall to quick music. 1t is not the
fruth of an ale pitcher. 1t is not the set
things of wine cup. 1t is not banquet
with intoxication and registering. 1t Is
the e st step on ladder that mounts
int the skies, or the first step on q road
that plunges into horrible abyss. So
that in this world we are only k, ying up
the harp of rapture, or forging the chain
of bondage. And standing before you
to day with life on the one side and death
on the other; song on the one side aud
grooming on the other; mansions on the
one side and dungeons on the other;
heaven on the one side and hell on the
other-I put to you the question Of the
text: chow old art tnou?" Toward
what destiny are you tending, and how
fast are you getting on towards ii?
Again, | remark that there many who
estimate their life on earth by their sor-
rows and their misfortunes. Through q
great many OF your lives the plowshare
hath gone very deep, turning up terri
bic furrow You have been betrayed,
and misrepresented, and set upon, and
slapped of impertinence, and pounded of
misfortune. The brightest life must have
its shadows, and
THE sMooTHEsT PATH ITS THORNS.
On the happiest brood the hawk
pounces No escape from trouble Of
some kind. While glorious JOAN Milton
was losing his oversight, he heard that
Salmaslus was glad Of it. While Sheri-
dams comedy was being enacted in Drury
Lane theater, Cumberland, his enemy,
sat growing ut it in the stage-buX
While Bishop Cooper was surrounded by
the favor of learned men, his wife took
his lexicon manuscript, the result OF
long life of anxiety and toll, and threw II
into the fire. Misfortune, trial, VI Xation
lor almost every one. Pope, applauded
of all the world, has stoop in the Shout
der that annoys him SO much tt at he . as
tunnel dug so that he may go unobserved
from garden to grotto and from grotto to
garden. Cano, the famous Spanish ar
fist, is disguised with the cruCitix
that the priest holds before him, because
it is such a poor specimen Of sculpture.
And so, sometimes through taste, ana
sometimes through learned menace, and
aye, in ten thousand ways, troubles come
to haraSs and annoy. And yeti is unfair
o measure mans life by his misfor-
tunes, because where there is one stalk
of nightshade there are fifty marigolds
and hsrebells; where there is me cloud
thunder-Charged there are hundreds that
stray across the heavens, the glory OF
land and sky asleep in their bo-
som. Because death came and
took your child away, did you
Immediately forget 81 the five
years, or the ten yer :, or the fifteen
years in which she Car every night for
kiss, ell the tones your heart peaIing
forth at the sound her voice or the soft
touch of ner p 20? Because in some
financial EurOc don Your fortune went
into the breakers did you forget all those
years in which the luXuries and extrava-
ganCes of this life showered on your path
way? Alasi that is an unWise man, an
ungrateful man, an unfair man, 81 IN
philosophiC man and, most OF ali,
AN UNCHRIsTIAN MAN
who measures his life on earth by groans,
and tears, and dyspeptic fit, and abuse,
and scorn, and terror, and neuralgia
thrust.
Again 1 remark that there are many
people who estimate their life on earth
by the amount Of money they have &C
cumulated. They say: "The year 1866
or 1876, or 1886 was wasted" Why?
Made no money. Now it is all cant and
insincerity to talk against IN 'ney as
though it had no value. 1t is refinement,
and education, and 10000 blessed sur
roundings. 1t is the spreading of the
table that feeds your children's hunger.
1t is the lighting of the furnace that keeps
you warm. 1t is the making Of the bed
on which you rest from care aad anxiety.
1t is the carrying out at last Of you to de-
cent sepulture, and the putting up of the
slab on which is chiseled the story Of
your Christian hope. 1t is simply hypoc-
risy, this TRADE in pulpit and lecture
hall, against money as though it had no
uses. 1t is hands, and feet, and sails,
and 10 900 grand and glorious enterprises.
But while all this is so, he who uses
money or thinks of money as snythi'
but means to an end, will find out his
mistake when the glittering treasures
slip out of his neryt less grasp and he
goes out of this world without shilling
of money or 3 certificate of stock.
He night better have been the
Christian porter that opened his
gate, or the begrimed work
man, who last night heaved the coal into
his cellar. Bonds and mortgages and
leases have their use, but they make
poor yardstiCk with which TO measure
life. They that boast themselves in their
wealth and trust on the multitude of
their riches, none of them can by any
means redeem bis brother, nor give to
God ransom for him that he should hot
see corruption. "Wlse men die, like
wise the fool and the british person per-
ish and leave their wealth to others
But l remark: There are msny-I
wish there were more-who estimate
their life by their
MORAL AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT.
II is not sinful eg ,uism for Cnrlstia
man to say, 81 am purer than l used to
be. l am more copsecrated to CIrist
than l used t. be. have got over
great many of the bad habits in which l
used to indulge. lam great deal bet
ter man than l used to be-" There is no
sinful egotism in that. 1t is not base
egotism Tor soldier TO say, 81 know
more about military tactics than USED
to before | took a musket in my hand
and learned to present arms and when
was pest to the dill officer" II is
not base egotism for a sailor to say, 81
know how better to clue do wn the mizzen
topsail than l used to before / hal ever
seen ship" And there is no sinful tgo-